Residents of Ferguson were urged to stay home after dark, after days of clashes with police following the shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old.

Missouri governor Jay Nixon lifted the curfew for the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson yesterday and began deploying National Guard troops to help quell days of rioting and protests spurred by the fatal shooting of a black unarmed teenager by a white policeman. 

The Governor of Missouri ordered the National Guard to a suburb of St Louis today, hours after police used tear gas to clear protesters off the streets following a week of demonstrations against the fatal police shooting of a black teenager.

St Louis police yesterday identified the officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager and released documents alleging the young man had been suspected of stealing a $48.99 box of cigars from a shop in a "strong-arm" robbery shortly before he was killed.